Through a recent podcast recommendation, I became aware of the work of Dacher Keltner. According to his Wikipedia page, Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, who directs the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab. He is also the founder and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center, host of the podcast The Science of Happiness, and chief scientific advisor of Hume AI. He is also the author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.
Wonder is one of magic’s trigger words. It’s what Doug Henning, SH Sharpe, Robert Neale, and other magic writers have talked about the craft evoking in our audiences. I have spent years wrestling with wonder, trying to decide if it’s what magic is intended to do.
In the spirit of total transparency, I only read segments of Keltner’s book. Mass market psychology, sociology, and business books often fall under what I’ve call the one chapter rule. There is usually one chapter in the book that explains the author’s entire premise. The balance of the book is in support of that chapter. I found this to be true in Awe. This isn’t criticism. It’s just the way I feel about much of the mass market non-fiction.
Through his research Keltner has identified the eight wonders of life:
- moral beauty
- collective effervescence
- nature
- music
- visual design
- spirituality and religion
- life and death
- epiphany
For conjurors, this list is a disappointment. Magic is not included. It’s not even found in his “other category that encompassed 5 percent of the responses worldwide. This category included stories about incredible flavors, video games, overwhelming sensations (for example, of color or sound), and first experiences of sex.”
Next time we’re hanging out with other magicians and someone says something about magic evoking wonder, we can say “Nope, not according to Dr. Keltner.”
It begs the question, what does magic evoke? For me, at its best, it triggers astonishment and surprise. Awe and wonder are best left to higher powers.
